Friday, December 8th, 2006

Worlds Away

As part of my best-of list last year, I posted this song from New York’s Daylight’s For the Birds under the category of “best singles”, which was really incorrect as it wasn’t a single at all – just an early taste of their album Trouble Everywhere which was finally released at the end of October. This track features vocals from Claudia Deheza, who was in On!Air!Library! with Daylights co-leader Phillip Wann and was a founding member of Daylight’s before moving on to other projects.

Though Deheza was replaced in the band by Amanda Garrett, her presence pervades the record with her voice and words appearing on seven of the ten tracks – Garrett takes lead on just two and Wann handles the title track and duets with Deheza on another. But the fact that I thought Garrett sang on far more of the album than she does is something of a testament to her ability to step into Deheza’s shoes. Even with the rotation of singers, Trouble Everywhere is quite consistent in delivering the dream-pop goods, ranging from the anthemic to the introspective. Though their shoegazer influences are unmistakable, there’s no shameless aping of what’s gone before – instead Daylight’s For The Birds take the spirit of the past and lead it through the present and into tomorrow. Unfailingly pretty, tinged with sadness around the edges but still fundamentally hopeful, there’s a glow about the whole affair not unlike looking at the sun with your eyes closed.

Flowering Toilet has a treat for “crazed Dean Wareham fans” who find their way to his site – a live Luna recording of “Bobby Peru”, released as a b-side to “Tracy, I Love You”. Full Of Wishes has another Luna rarity on offer, a recording of “Malibu Love Nest” recorded at Philadelphia’s WXPN during their 2004 farewell tour. And not to be outdone, Newplanet pays tribute to the other half of Dean & Britta with an expansive post about Jem (who was truly outrageous). For those not in the know, one of Britta Phillips’ former gigs was as the singing voice of the cartoon pop star. I had a friend in seventh grade who would watch Jem before coming to school in the morning, and then tell us about it at recess. No, we didn’t ask him for the recaps. He just wanted to share.

Dean & Britta have also re-posted their Christmas song from last year on their MySpace, an old Roger Miller cover. Their new album Back Numbers is now available to pre-order before its February 27 release date. Grok the album art here.

Pitchfork puts the release of Wheat’sEveryday I Said A Prayer For Kathy And Made A One Inch Square at March 6 of next year. Their teaser EP, That’s Exactly What I Wanted… Exactly That, is out next Tuesday.

Newsarama talks to Mark Steven Johnson, who will be in charge of shepherding Preacher from comic to HBO series. Though he says all the right things, it’s hard to forget he’s also the guy responsible for Daredevil and the almost certain to be awful Ghost Rider. Still, fingers crossed.

Love that DFTB record. Didn’t know that Deheza was still on it, myself, as I got it off EMusic and didn’t have any liner notes or anthying. The Emusic files have a lot of weird skips in them, though, so I mail ordered the real deal yesterday.

I don’t have much hope for Ghost Rider, either. But you might have fun renting the Daredevil DVD to listen to Johnson’s commentary, which is mostly his explanation of all the things the studio did to help screw up that pic. It’s pretty amusing to hear him describe a three-hour conference call about which shade of red the costume should be. Ostensibly, it could not be the color in the book because some suit thought people would confuse Daredevil with Spider-Man.

Thanks for the Daylight tracks; I really liked what I heard of O!A!L! Daylight’s playing the Rainer Maria farewell show at the Bowery in a week, but unfortunately that’s been sold out for a while. I should also really check out Luna. Oh, and the only Jem I know of is the Welsh singer, so that site was a bit confusing.

thanks also for the link, don’t know why the audio levels are low either — like I said, it was a gift passalong from a friend, and damned if i know enough about audio levels to make it better in any way ;)

Aaah, I once described Britta Phillips as that "too hip for words Jem songstress". Even though she’s much moodier than when she was Jem, I’m still loving her work with Luna and with Dean. See, I like cool music too y’know. Thanks for the link!